Stripped

I would sooner shed all garb
And stand before you bare,
Than shed my dermis, to have you see
This assemblage of certain imperfections

Peeled away to reveal more
Than simply flesh and bone
~so much more than that, you see~
Scars that won’t scab, never kissed by air
Frayed tendons worn from ‘holding it together’

Cabled conduits carry an interchangeable flow
Of crimson life force and arctic water on any given day
Calcified bones, seemingly strong, in truth risk fracture
Threatening shatter under the weight of circumstance
I’ve learned to guard them all, carefully of course

I shroud myself in the fabric of aesthetics
All the words that never find their way
To the conversations we may never have
Find themselves emblazoned in the annals of my art

The collage that composes me, marbled in black and white
Speaks the color of my existence in infinite hues
Read them and know me, see them and feel me
Know that on these strips of tree, I stand before you…..stripped